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Since I mentioned my birds above, I thought I'd let everyone know that one of my parakeets hatched a baby over the weekend. It's happened many times before and it's still as exciting as ever.

The first day or so, there's just a barely audible little peep from the nest box but already, just 3-4 days old the peeps are getting stronger. It's a minor miracle that the tiny little things survive, the are soooo small when they're born.

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"Hunger for growth will come to you in the form of a problem." -- unknown

Congratulations! Hubby is a huge bird lover, and we've raised Goffin's ****atoos and a variety of waxbill finches. Never tried parakeets, although my daughter has a hand-raised one that is delightful to have around.

Is there nothing uglier than a newly hatched parakeet, unless it's a parrot? AND I mean that in an endearing way. It's so exciting when they're born.

Do you have a single breeding pair? What is their setup?

Nina

[Doggone autocensor! Perhaps I should have said we've raised Goffin's smallish white hookbill parrots native to the southern Pacific???]

No problem, I just thought it was a joke I wasn't getting (wouldn't be the first time).

My all-time favorite horse was a wonderful black Morgan mare; I would have ridden her anywhere and I believe she would have safely taken me down the side of a cliff if need be. But I've seen others that were pretty dense.

Arabians are lovely to look at but, IMHO, have been overbred for a particular show look for way too long now. They've always been a small breed but now I know the breeders are becoming nervous that they have gotten too small. Imagine putting down mega-thousands for a stud fee, only to have your next potential champion max out at 13.5 hands, too small for the ring! (but beautiful, nonetheless...)

Nina, Thanks for the note. I'm sad to say that disaster struck last Wednesday. I went into the kitchen around 11 pm and lo! the mother keet was on the floor dead! I couldn't believe it, this has never happened to me before. So I panicked because I didn't know how to take care of the 4 day old. Well, I took it out of the nest box and kept it with me in bed all night to keep it warm (needless to say I didn't get any sleep for fear of crushing the helpless little thing). I made some oatmeal and fed it some of the pasty-like fluid that forms around the oat kernels. I had no idea if that was a good idea or bad idea but I couldn't reach anyone at that time of night so I took a chance. It survived the night and Thrusday morning a receptionist at my vet's said she would love to hand feed it and raise it. So I bought some substitute mother's milk for birds on the way and she is now taking care of it. Whew. I've had birds die on me before but none has ever left me with a baby the size of a half-dollar. You're right about appearance, but after spending the night with the scrawny little thing it really grew on me, big time.

As of last week I had one breeding pair--of course now I don't have any. I've had about 3 different breeding pairs at different times over the years. I have some nest boxes hanging on the wall near the ceiling (high ceilings: 10').

About 4 years ago, I had a love bird pair that bred and produced a lovely little bird that I still have. The father past on last year (which made me very sad--he was the most adorable little bird) but the mother (Venus) is still alive and has a new lover (Niro).

_________________________
"Hunger for growth will come to you in the form of a problem." -- unknown

Sorry to hear about your parakeet, it's amazing how quickly they can fall ill and die. I've never had to hand-raise such a tiny bird myself, when we've done it we usually leave it to the parents until they're much older. Someone will get a wonderful pet out of the arrangement, though!

I assume your birds are inside? We've never had success until we built a large outdoor aviary, but our climate (particularly in the winter) is a lot more favorable than yours. I think our birds, particularly the finches, really needed a lot more quiet and privacy than we were able to provide indoors.